The Spell is a musical interpretation of an old legend from the Alpstein, a mystical mountain area in the east of Switzerland. According to the tale, a shepherd boy, Hennes, cared for his animals on the alpine pastures, but many of the animals fell ill with a terrible plague and died. The mountain spirit appeared to Hennes out of the mists of Säntis and so the story unfolds… The music of The Spell follows the narrative of this legend, in which musical motifs are assigned to the essential elements of the story, a technique seen in late romantic repertoire by composers such as Wagner or Richard Strauss.